Citi closed all my credit cards :(((

[FinStar]

Sorry to hear about your Citi Retail [AA] closures OP. It certainly would be unpleasant news, but not all is lost. Just chalk it up as a lesson learned and restratregize as there are plenty of other opportunities.

Did you obtain the 3 Citi Retail CCs in less than a couple months or how far were they spaced out? Something definitely tripped their algorithms.

[MacRoadie]

Home Depot was October 2018, Mobil was July of last year, and Best Buy was Christmas of 2017.

Definitely a lesson learned. I've decided that I'm just going to take all my lumps at one time, and go ahead and close a few other cards from the early rebuilding days. I have a few Comenity SCT cards, as well as a few Synchrony cards (is there anything that isn't Synchrony anymore?) with zero balances and relatively low CL's that I'm going to jettison. After paying off and closing, I'm left with 20 accounts, including Discover, AMEX Platinum, BofA MC, BBVA Visa, and some store cards. 10 with balances. Utilization will go up to 23%, but I'll pay off the rest (or pay down significantly). I'd rather have fewer accounts anyway. I'm fine, credit-wise, so the reports can drop as they may. Built up once, can do it again.

[BallBounces]

The OP and first response both have 20 or more revolving credit lines if I am readin sigs correctly.

Do we know if this recent AA from Citi is widespread among profiles with a more typical number of open revolving accounts?

[BallBounces]

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@MacRoadie wrote:

<SNIP> After paying off and closing, I'm left with 20 accounts, including Discover, AMEX Platinum, BofA MC, BBVA Visa, and some store cards. 10 with balances. Utilization will go up to 23%, <SNIP>

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Yeah, per my simultaneous reply above, that was(is) a lot of open revolvers.  Probably a "message" for you to close the SCT relics, but unfortunate that it came from Citi, IMO.  

Your sig FICOS are a few months old, do you know what they are today?

[MacRoadie]

EXP: 685

EQ:678

TU: 660

[BallBounces]

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@MacRoadie wrote:

EXP: 685

EQ:678

TU: 660

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Gotcha.  I am sure that plays in to their risk management algorithms.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the data points. So were you closer to 30 open revolving accounts if I'm reading that correctly?

Just a heads up you mentioned 10 cards are carrying a balance. You may want to close down to no lower than 21. There is scoring hit for "half or more" (I think that's the wording iirc) accounts with balances. Its probably not a massive amount of points but points are points.

That is until you can reduce the number with balances.

[sarge12]

I have close to 20 open credit cards, but I have gotten no more than 3 per year. Citi has not shown any inclination to close mine......yet!!!!!! To be real, I don't think these issuers ever give you fair notice of AA. Chase gave me advanced notice last month that they were cancelling my Freedom Unlimited when it expires. I called them, and they said I could keep it open, or just move the unused credit limit to my Chase Amazon Prime, which I did. The Freedom Unlimited had not been used in 2 years though. I have a gut feeling that most of the credit card issuers are trying to decrease their exposure, and eliminate dormant accounts. I think I may dig some cards out of the sock drawer and swipe them.

[kdm31091]

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@sarge12 wrote:

I have close to 20 open credit cards, but I have gotten no more than 3 per year. Citi has not shown any inclination to close mine......yet!!!!!! To be real, I don't think these issuers ever give you fair notice of AA. Chase gave me advanced notice last month that they were cancelling my Freedom Unlimited when it expires. I called them, and they said I could keep it open, or just move the unused credit limit to my Chase Amazon Prime, which I did. The Freedom Unlimited had not been used in 2 years though. I have a gut feeling that most of the credit card issuers are trying to decrease their exposure, and eliminate dormant accounts. I think I may dig some cards out of the sock drawer and swipe them.

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AA because of inactive accounts vs AA because of something "negative" are two different things. An issuer is not going to warn you they are closing your account for reasons like spiking utilization, too many new accounts, inquiries, etc.  If they are uncomfortable with extending you the credit and feel you're a credit risk in any way, the last thing they will do is warn you so you could rack up more charges on the card.

Closures for neutral reasons like inactivity are the exception. In general though you aren't going to get warned about AA because it would defeat the purpose.

[rbentley]

I think we are going to need more reports and data points before we can assume that this is a new policy that Citi is going to be applying accross accounts or just specific to the OP's profile.